What is the best way to preserve a bottle of wine or champagne after opening and tasting it? In this complete guide, L’Atelier du Vin provides an overview of our best practices. We will also present the best preservation accessories for wine, champagne and sparkling wine, to prolong your oenological experience until the very last drop.
Contents:
Preserving an Open Bottle of Wine
When tasting a fine wine, you don’t have to finish the bottle in one go! It would, however, be a great shame to waste even the tiniest drop of your sweet nectar. The best way to store a bottle of wine after opening it, is to seal it and keep it at the right temperature, away from light, heat, odours and vibrations. A wine cellar, if you have one, is the ideal place to preserve an open vintage. For a white wine that needs to be served fresh, a refrigerator would be a better option.
Can You Leave a Bottle of Wine Open?
Bottles can remain open while you’re enjoying them, during a meal or a wine tasting session. For certain young or full-bodied vintages, you can even open the bottle several hours before serving, to aerate and decant the wine, if necessary. Nonetheless, if you leave a bottle of red or white wine open and exposed to the air for too long, it can become oxidised.
Closing the bottle is therefore the simplest way to stop this oxidation, which could turn the wine to vinegar and make it undrinkable. Oenology experts, wine lovers and sommeliers use stoppers, as well as vacuum pumps to seal bottles. Let’s take a closer look at how to use these tools to preserve your open bottles of wine and enjoy it an extra day or 2 before it turns.
Wine Stoppers to Hermetically Seal Bottles
Just as you would use a corkscrew to open your finest bottles, or a tasting glass to appreciate a wine’s aromas, we recommend keeping at least one storage stopper in your cellar.
This wine accessory is a must-have for storing open bottles. There are a number of different models and mechanisms available to seal bottles in a perfectly airtight manner. Here is an overview of our collection of wine storage stoppers.
The Stopper
The name says it all! The Stopper is simple and effective, as well as attractive and easy-to-use. It is gently curved at the top, making it easy to hold. Closing and reopening bottles is effortless with this storage stopper. Simply pull up and turn, as though screwing or unscrewing a cap with your thumb and index.
The Cork Stopper
This stopper looks just like a wine cork and rests lightly on top of the bottle. The hidden section is inserted into the neck to ensure that the bottle is well sealed. The natural design of the Cork Stopper makes it all the more elegant. It matches perfectly with any label and will look just as good in your wine cellar as on a tasting table, or on display in your house.
The Pourer Stopper
The Universal Stopper
Vacuum Pumps, to Extract the Air from Bottles and Prevent Oxidation
You need more than a simple stopper to preserve wine that is particularly sensitive to oxygenation, as air may become trapped in the bottle once it has been opened and resealed. For fragile wines or old vintages, we therefore recommend using a vacuum pump and matching sealer to extract all the air from the bottle and completely stop the oxidation process after opening.
Gard’Vin On/Off Vacuum Pump
How do you use our vacuum pump and sealer? Insert the Gard’Vin On/Off sealer into the neck: the topper is raised, and the red part is visible. Next, position the Gard’Vin vacuum pump vertically on top of it. Then, pump with the upper part of the vacuum. When the topper on the sealer has been lowered and the red part is no longer visible, there is no more air. Your wine bottle is now airtight and will remain that way for several days, until you decide to open it next.
The Bilame Corkscrew, or the Exception to the Rule
What better way to preserve a fine wine, than with its original cork! There is only one corkscrew that enables you to extract and reinsert the cork without piercing it, or accidentally contaminating the wine with small pieces of cork: the Bilame corkscrew. What’s its secret?
The Bilame Corkscrew, a L’Atelier du Vin Signature
Using an ancient system and model, one of which is patented by L’Atelier du Vin, the corkscrew’s two blades slip between the glass and the cork to gently extract it, while keeping it perfectly intact. Nearly a century ago, waiters would use this system to discreetly open bottles, take a sip and close them again without anyone noticing!
A miraculous wine tool and collector’s item for wine enthusiasts, the Bilame corkscrew is therefore all you need to store a bottle of wine after opening it, by resealing it with its own cork. All you have to do is keep it at the right temperature until your next tasting session, for several hours or 1 to 2 days.
Preserving an Open Champagne Bottle
Opening a champagne bottle often celebrates a rare moment of happiness, shared with loved ones… A magical time that you would like to prolong. But can you drink leftover champagne the next day? Of course! As long as you take an important factor in account when storing an open bottle of champagne or sparkling wine: bubbles!
If you leave an excellent bottle of champagne open for just a few hours, it will soon lose its flavour, as its concentration in carbon dioxide decreases. To preserve its taste and effervescence, and enjoy it again later, you should reseal your bottle hermetically and keep it well chilled.
Champagne and Sparkling Wine Stoppers
It is impossible to reinsert the original champagne cork once it has been popped! You therefore need to use a reusable stopper, designed specifically for preserving champagne and sparkling wine. This champagne accessory must be adapted to the diameter of the bottle’s neck and be completely airtight, to avoid any spillage and, above all, to maintain the bubbles. Here is an overview of our collection of champagne stoppers.
The Gard’Bulles Champagne Lever Stopper
The Metal Gard’Bulles Champagne Stopper
The Metal Gard’Bulles champagne stopper is like an armoured helmet, protecting your bottle’s neck at all costs. It stands out for its high-end design and ability to let no bubbles out until your next tasting session. Once its metal jaws are closed around the bottle, your champagne will maintain all its virtues.
The Bubble Cork Champagne Stopper
A faithful reproduction of a beautiful champagne cork, the Bubble Cork stopper sits proudly atop the bottle. Beneath its elegant exterior, lies an ingenious screwing mechanism that seals the bottle perfectly. Once the top has been screwed on, the part inserted into the neck expands until it completely blocks the passage of air and bubbles.
The Model 54 Champagne Stopper
Once the Model 54 stopper has been inserted and the upper part screwed, the champagne or sparkling wine bottle is airtight. The elegant metal disc preserves your bottle’s charm, for you to rediscover with the same enthusiasm as when you first opened it.
The Bubble Indicator Stopper
Do you want to ensure that you lose absolutely nothing of your fine Blanc de Blancs vintage? To preserve such a champagne bottle, L’Atelier du Vin recommends its prestigious Bubble Indicator stopper. This beautiful bubble-shaped stopper indicates the level of pressure inside your bottle. Simply screw it on and voilà! The visual indicator will let you know before it’s too late to enjoy your champagne one last time.
Have you found this guide to preserving wine and champagne useful? To discover our tips on the best wine and sommellerie practices, check out our other complete guides: